What is a black person?

[coccinelle]

I find it very strange and no doubt others do too that anybody born to a black parent and a white parent is considered black. So, black is the domineering colour here. This same person has a child with a white person and their child is still considered as being black (even if it would be difficult to see that), so black is still the domineering colour. After how many generations is a person no longer considered 'black'?

[jake-the-peg]

They're black when they consider themselves to be black, white when they consider themselves white.

Some Genes switch on and off large scale changes. Skin colour's not one of those

[whifffey]

White is a bland colour. When you see a young mum with a pushchair and the child is half-black, then you are seeing the joyful future, because the future lies with single parent families of white-black conjugations. The children are better looked after than their White or Asian etc etc contemporaries and do better at school. They contribute more to society than other groups. Unfortunately they seem often to have less money and this is probably because of racism. There are for example 17 black children living next door to me. I look forward with excitement to Britain's future prosperity.

It might even clear up the rubbish in the back garden.

[funnygirl]

It also depends on how you were brought up and how you feel when you're old enough to understand

I had a black father and a half white mother, but most of our family and friends were black. I liked black music, eg: reggae and soul and black foods like rice n peas!

My cousin who has a half white dad and black mother declares herself white!!!

[jno]

'Black' is how such people were defined - by whites - in the US in the days of slavery, and more recently in South Africa. Ideally, there should be no need to classify people on the basis of skin colour at all, any more than on the basis of hair colour; but people who fret about these things are constantly talking about how many black/brown/yellow people there are around these days.

[zzxxee]

i am white my daughters father was black she considers herself mixed race

[tamborine]

If a person looks black they are considered black, same for white, yellow & other colors.

Its a delicate situation as a black/caucasion/asian person might be offended with given designations....on forms you are therefore asked your color.

Color though, does not tell you the worth of a man.

[shanilisa]

In response to jno - in South Africa black people are the worst perputuants of the Black / White divide. There is Black Economic Empowerment which basically means that if your company is not rated with black directors you cannot get certain contracts. There is "employment equity" now, which is not equitable at all - black women get jobs first, then black men, then indian women, indian men then white women, then white men - regardless of skill, education or ability. Funny how Indians who were "white" during apartheid are now claiming their "blackness". If anything blacks here "celebrate" their blackness - it is not a condescending term. Just as "African Americans" celebrate their "blackness".

[coccinelle]

Very interesting answers but when we're told the black population of the world is so many people who is considered 'black'? when is the moment a white looking person is no longer considered black?
I have a friend whose parents were from two different races and you can see this; however, she married a white man and has two children if you'd never seen the mother nobody would know they were 'black', which I'm told they are.

[Brinjal]

My husbands mother was Indian/german and his father was african/english. He certainly didnt consider himself black nor white. The term used in the then Rhodesia was coloured but he didnt really fit intothat either. His passport used to say Coloured and others. Maybe he was the other!!

[BertiWooster]

'' Black'' ''White'' are not colours

[shanilisa]

oh yes, on the "coloured" note - in SA there is a very big "Coloured" community - and they are VERY proud of their heritage and their identity. They even have what THEY call the "**** Carnival" in Cape Town which is a huge procession through the streets singing and dancing and playing instruments...

We truly are a Rainbow Nation.

[Quinlad]

This may help to clear the matter up for you.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/j an/18/race-obama

[Valda1965]

People!
I remember the first black boy at my school and how proud I was when he became my brothers best friend. Likewise when the Mancunian new girl came to sit next to me. The boy we befriended with water on the brain, who was soon to die, and the guy at work with an enlarged head due to calcium deficiency, who moved to America to be with his girlfriend Learning about new cultures, different ways of speaking, even now how my brother says "Aye" now he lives with his Scottish girlfriend,.
How we should celebrate our quirky differences and sameness inside as being human beings, from all over the planet, we all have a beating heart with the same common aspirations and feelings inside.